Prosecutors will begin arguing for the death penalty for a man believed to have slain three Muslim students at the University of North Carolina.

Craig Stephen Hicks, 43, is accused of killing 23-year-old Deah Shaddy Barakat, 21-year-old Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and 19-year-old Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha inside a condominium on the eastern side of Chapel Hill, according to a News-Observer report. He turned himself in to Chatham County law enforcement less than an hour after the bodies were found on Feb. 10.

Hicks, their neighbor, allegedly shot and killed Barakat and Yusor, who were husband and wife, and Razan, Yusor’s sister, over a parking dispute. The murders spread like wildfire on social media with many believe they had to do with religious bias, especially in the wake of a New York Times report in February that none of the cars used by them had been parked in Hicks’ assigned space.

Federal investigators are looking into whether hate-crime charges would apply here. Such charges tend to be difficult to prove, and the prosecution must show that religion was the predominant motivating factor.

The case will be tried in Durham County, and prosecutors will attempt to convince Judge Orlando Hudson to allow capital punishment to be an option if Hicks is convicted of first-degree murder.

Hicks is an unemployed community college student. Police found a stash of guns in his home.

The couple’s family said that Hicks had been a problem before, and they had taken steps to try to please the angry neighbor. They said he patrolled the parking lot with a gun that was kept in a holster that he wore on his hip. Hicks also kept pictures and notes on parking activity.

Hicks has been held in Central Prison in Raleigh, allowing them to keep him isolated from the other prisoners.